In many modern office buildings, permanent walls, of the non-load bearing type, are not desirable to define offices or secretarial work areas. Many modern day buildings had been designed utilizing open area work spaces. However, from a psychological and from a privacy standpoint, it is often necessary to divide some of the work areas into individual spaces and the use of partition walls and screening between such work areas or work stations is well known in the art.
Another reason for using removable and transportable screens or panel assemblies in work areas is that the work areas may be redesigned and modified as the use for the space changes. This avoids costly remodeling projects.
Some of the problems encountered in using prior art screens or panel assemblies were that their structural design often lacked flexibility and stability. In addition, many prior art screens or panel assemblies did not provide sufficient acoustical properties to insure speech privacy. Lastly, many of the prior art screens or panel assemblies were aesthetically unappealing.